STAT reported:
When it comes to creating treatments for Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, the first line of defense may be a century-old technology: purified blood plasma.British medical journal The Lancet published a paper on the use of plasma to treat COVID-19 on February 27th. A week before this paper The Carlyle Group invested in MAK Systems which makes software for blood management solutions, including blood plasma.
Patients who have recovered from a disease have permanent antibodies generated by the immune system floating in their blood plasma, the liquid component of blood. To turn that into a drug, the plasma is harvested, tested for safety, and purified to isolate those protective antibodies. When injected into a new patient, the “plasma-derived therapy” — also known as convalescent plasma — provides “passive immunity” until the patient’s immune system can generate its own antibodies.
Carlyle Co-CEO Kewsong Lee predicted the virus impact with be worse than people think. Carlyle has a number of investments in China and likely has seen firsthand the impact of a widespread outbreak on people and supply chains.
Congress plans an $8 billion coronavirus package and the IMF announced $50 billion for international efforts to address the pandemic. Surely, Carlyle will get their hands on some of this money. Reading tea leaves and making big money off human misery. It's what they do.
Update 3-24-20: The State of New York will conduct a clinical trial using plasma to treat seriously ill coronavirus patients.
Update 4-11-20: Carlyle co-founder David Rubenstein "recounts that a number of years ago he asked Fauci whether he might want to leave government for the private sector, he responded that he didn't need the money and wanted to stay where he was."
Update 3-31-20: The United Kingdom joined the U.S. in offering convalescent plasma therapy to sick COVID-19 patients.
Update 4-7-20: Chinese medical studies show the benefit of convalescent plasma on seriously ill coronavirus patients.
Update 4-8-20: The FDA approved Johns Hopkins' use of convalescent plasma therapy for COVID-19 patients. "On Friday, the FDA approved a clinical trial specifically for Johns Hopkins that will allow its researchers to further test the therapy as a means of preventing otherwise healthy people, notably front-line medical staff, from getting sick. FDA approval is pending for a second Hopkins clinical trial on patients who are slightly or moderately ill to see if the serum will keep them out of ICUs and help bring them back to health."
